I have hesitated to share this experience. I did not want to sound like a religious freak, because I am not, but I am a believer in miracles and a Christian. I initially became a Christian after much reading about different religions and from a practical standpoint, I chose to eventually focus on Christianity, because I truly came to believe that it offered the best hope for our world, our world truly still needs saving and God delivered a way to save our world through the transforming, life changing Holy Spirit and life of Christ. I did not become a Christian until much later in life, as I was not raised in the church, however, I was a God Spiritual seeker throughout high school, college and into marriage and read so many books on all sorts of different religions, and… I read about Science. I was a subscriber to Scientific American and Science Life and I graduated from the College of Environmental Engineering. Science brought me closer to belief, which many say Science, causes them to lose faith in a evidence of a Creator, but the more I learned about Modern Physics and Organic Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics, the more I knew it was too miraculous to have occurred by chance, it was designed and created by an entity larger than our planet, galaxy and universe, it created the universe and designed it all for the purpose of creation, connection and evolution of faith and love in our soul to bring full glory to the Creator.

I had been on an intense reading binge on Christianity of years by now and was admittedly really struggling with certain beliefs in Christianity. Through prayer and mind wrestling with God over the immaculate conception, resurrection and ascension of Christ, I had come a long way, but the last stumbling block was the Second Coming of Christ. I could not get past that, my Science mind wrestled it into a potential second Big Bang and Black Holes and new heavenly universe, I had been praying and having many a dark nights of the soul, really trying to fit this into my limited thinking. I finally realized that I was focusing to much on the how it would happen, which ultimately did not matter. I finally just focused on praying for God to rewire my mind and to literally move furniture that was blocking me from belief, because I wanted to believe it would happen and no longer needed to know how. After several weeks of “prayer wrestling”, I was in my daughter’s room reading, I believe she was in kindergarten at the time, and we had both fallen asleep. I had a dream or vision of a transcendent white glowing Christ standing in the clouds with a seemingly infinite group of people standing below. A vision may not sound like much, and in years prior I had several Out of Body Experiences, where I felt the vibrational energy of my molecules it seemed and my soul left my body and ventured out, but this was different…along with the vision, my brain felt as if every synapse was firing, physically and visually. I felt it and a saw the bright transcendent light that was spreading from the vision to the fullness of my mind. It was done, I woke up and I believed. My prayers were answered. God, rewired my brain, literally.

That same night, when I woke up from my vision, Samantha woke up and asked me if I had seen him. I said, “Seen Who?”. She said, “Jesus, he was here, in my room, I saw him over there in the corner.” I cried and said, “Yes, I did, I saw him, but it was different in my mind, like a vision or dream.” End of story. Yes, I believe.

“Yes,” Jesus said, “I am. And in the future you will see me, the Messiah, sitting at the right hand of God and returning on the clouds of heaven.”

I am not posting this to change your mind about God, I of all people, know, that only God can do that and if you choose to let Him.

Here is an amazing sermon, Having the Spirt Transform Us, which starts at about 43 minutes in, that Dr. Joel Hunter talks about the Spirit Transforming us and specifically about the Renewing or Rewiring of the Mind is at 1:17 minutes in. Not everyone has the physical experience that I literally had, but that does not mean that the mind can’t be renewed in a different way.

You might think this would be about the Pastor’s Kids, however, this is about my husband and I, and “Our Growing Up” in the church and well in a sense, we are Pastor’s Kids, Pastor Barry’s kids and he is truly a spiritual father, the kind that teaches spiritual foundation. When we chose our church in our early years of marriage, we were spiritually immature, and yes, we believed that we chose it, however, we know now that God’s spirit led us to the church where our children attended preschool and He had many good reasons for doing so.

I had been attending Bible Study Fellowship for several years and had made a personal commitment to pray daily about God growing up our church and growing us up in it. I know that God answered my prayers and had begun the work of growing us up before Pastor Barry came to our church. He was already at work growing my faith in actively praying for God’s will. Pastor Barry and his sweet wife Helen came to our church and once again, God grew my faith in the power of my prayers.

Pastor Barry began the work of praying for God’s will for our church. He, along with the leadership of our church, made a commitment to pray for God’s will and discerned our need for a restructuring and rebuilding and adding on, and although we did much of this in the physical realm, such as selling off some office space that was disconnecting us and adding on a much needed youth building and office space, I am talking more about the spiritual foundation that he restructured, that best enabled us to grow up as Christians with Christ as the cornerstone. He brought Fresh Bread Bible reading to our church, and consistently preached about praying for God’s will. He brought us Experiencing God and Knowing God’s will and many other studies that would grow us up, if we set aside our own will and just focused on God’s will. He focused on Christ as the Cornerstone and loving acceptance, hating the sin, but loving the sinner. He encouraged many of us to participate in the “Walk to Emmaus” and those of us who did, were blessed and grew up spiritually. Truly a wonderful experience and a taste of what heaven on Earth can be like.

He is a true vessel of God’s words, spirit and humility. His prayerful and humble leadership edified the foundation of Sanlando United Methodist church that will further enable the next generation of leaders God calls to come in and continue the good work God began through Pastor Barry. We are eternally grateful for the leadership you provided to us at crucial time in our life as parents. We appreciate Helen’s sweet nature and have loved your sermons on marriage and your sweet references to your beautiful bride and thankful to be some of your children who grew up in church. What we learned through your leadership is truly evident in our own children, as we know better how to spiritually guide them to handle life with prayer and to help teach them to follow God’s will for their life. When I think of a Bible Verse that makes me think of Pastor Barry Lane, I think of Ephesians 3:14-21 and the song “They will know we are Christians by our Love” and “Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven”.

My husband and I have been married since 1994 and on our 10 year anniversary, my husband planned a phenomenal trip to Victoria Island and Tofino, British Columbia. We had arrived at the resort and were all unpacked, including ALL my books (Lee Strobel’s, Case for Christ, Spiritual Personality Types using Myer’s Briggs, and a myriad of C.S. Lewis Books) that I had brought to read and of course, share with Kirk. He was relaxing in the balcony and I came out to read TO him. Today was C.S.Lewis, Mere Christianity, one of my all time favorite books, written for people like me with especially questioning and scientific type minds. I had only been a Christian for maybe 5 years and my husband had grown up in the church, unlike myself. However, my husband had strayed from his faith and well, he needed my newfound wisdom, vision and passion to help him see the light again. As you can imagine, it was beyond annoying for him and the light, well it was a giant spot light shining right into his eyes, blinding him to the beautiful visions that God was gifting me with. Finally, as I said, honey, you really need to hear this, he said, why do you always have to have an agenda? Can’t you just let it go and relax?

Well, I went to go lie down as it was not going as I had hoped. I had faIlen asleep and that is when the dream or vision came to me. You see Kirk and I had been struggling lately with him taking on being spiritual leader of our family. It was just not how I would do it or how I heard God telling me to do it…and was really struggling with trusting Kirk to do things his way. I must have fallen asleep and that is when the dream or vision came to me. We were hiking and Kirk was leading and I was following. First we went over a wooden bridge that was not as stable as I would have liked. Then we came to a fork in the road. To the left was a narrow ledge that wrapped around the mountain and looked inviting, adventurous, but risky. To the right was a steep mountain with a lot of trees and I already knew which way my husband would choose. He said, come on, lets go this way, it looks like fun, the other way looks like a lot of work. I dug my heels in and said I did not want to go. He held my hand and said come on, you wanted me to lead, I got this. As soon as he stepped out onto the ledge, it turned to sand and began to give way. He was falling and I was holding his hand and now I did not want to let go for fear he would fall into the abyss below. I was beginning to fall and God said, let him go. I got this. This is not your saving, it is Mine. Clouds shaped liked hands formed and came down below him and God said again to let him go and I did. The hands lifted my husband up and placed him at the foot of the mountain. The clouds lifted and an eagle flew out and headed up the mountain, indicating we were to follow. We held hands and began the steep hike together, side by side.

I woke up and knew I had to let go and let God do His work. Kirk was His to save…not me. God had to do it the way that was unique to Kirk and how Kirk was gifted and wired. God spoke to me through prophetic dreams and visions and direct communication through intense study and prayer and I was gifted and wired to receive that. We had different gifts and different purposes.

We left Victoria and began the four hour drive to Tofino, British Columbia. We had plenty of time to talk and I shared my vision from the morning. He liked the sound of what I had to tell him…that I would be letting go. So I began the work of letting go. When we arrived at our room in Tofino, we sat down at the table and there was a painting above the table of two eagles on a branch, getting ready to take flight and they were at the face of a mountain. We smiled.

When we arrived back home and I had told a friend about our wonderful trip and my vision, she asked me tell her the name of the resort that we were staying at in Victoria and I told her again, it was the Aerie Resort. She asked me if she knew what an “Aerie” was and I said, “Nope”. She let me know that it was an Eagle’s Nest. God was ministering to me there in the Eagle’s Nest and bringing me to the end of myself and bringing me to Himself and He intends to carry my husband and I on the wings of Eagles to reach His fortress at the top of the mountain, which is also “Aerie”.

That was nearly 9 years ago. There were times where I have felt that we were back at the base of the mountain and we had not really climbed yet at all, but truly we have climbed and have covered ground. I just need the continual reminder that it is in God’s time and not my own. I also need that continual refuel of the Holy Spirit to keep my strength and perseverance up so that I won’t grow weary of the climb.

For the lord God is our Light and protector. He give us grace and glory. No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right. Psalm 84: 10-12

At the age of 14, the Scottish born St. Patrick was kidnapped and taken to Ireland and forced to be a shepherd. Patrick was surrounded by evil people and as he watched sheep all day and night, he prayed that his love for God would grow.

When he was 20, he had a dream about escaping by going to the coast. As the story goes, when he awoke he escaped and was reunited with this family in Britain. Later, he dreamt about the people of ireland and was called by God to tell them about Christ. He shared the love of Christ through the use of the Shamrock with many people.

Patrick was able to be courageous to face his enemies and return to a place that had caused him a lot of pain and hardship, because he knew that God was in control. He was more afraid of people dying without Christ than he was about facing the risks and rejection.

God sometimes uses the strangest experiences to grow our faith in Him. I am just thankful that it does not take me getting kidnapped and being forced into slavery and spending a lot of time praying alone with a bunch of sheep…although, I have to admit that last part does not sound so bad. Anyway, I share the the story for a reason and it is all just too coincidental that this would be happening about the same time that I was getting ready to sit down to write our “Easter/St. Patrick’s Letter” back in 2005, since once again, I couldn’t get it out at Christmas.

One day, Sammy and I were out looking for four leaf clovers, which I can tell you, I had no real intention on actually finding any. I had never found any before and I spent a good deal of time looking as a kid. Sammy announced confidently, that she would find one. I warned her that they are very hard to find and as I was continuing my commentary, she bent down to the very first patch she came across and picked up the first clover that her eyes discerned. She excitedly announced, “I found one, I found a four leaf clover.” Of course, Mommy chuckled and said, “Oh, now check carefully, because sometimes the three leafed clovers deceive you. You have to really count the leaves very, very carefully.” She counted again and said, “Yep, it is definitely a four leafed clover, I knew I would find one.” I thought to myself, “Ah, the faith of a child.”

I said, “OK, let me see it.” I counted the leaves three times and she was right…I was utterly amazed. I told her that she was very lucky and that Mommy had never found one in all of her life. Of course, I had to look down in the very same patch, which of course, would be silly, because what are the odds that we would find two, let alone in the same patch. Well, an inch over from where she plucked hers, I plucked one of my very own. “Well, what do you know, I found one too, it must be our lucky day!” I was truly amazed and knew it was a gift from God, to be able to share this experience with my daughter and I had been having a very hard time in the recent months…so I knew it was a gift and I just had to fully unwrap it to know fully what God was trying to tell me.

When we got home, I pressed the clovers and went right to the internet to learn more about four leaf clovers and Shamrocks, especially since St. Patrick’s Day was quickly approaching and knew virtually nothing about St. Patrick, or how he became a Saint, until I found the story that I shared earlier. I also learned that the Irish tradition, thanks to St. Patrick, says that the Shamrock or the three leafed clover represents the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. If a clover is found with the fourth leaf, that represents God’s Grace. That was the Gift God was trying to give me. His grace…my daughter and I were covered in His grace and nothing anyone else said or did or believed could change that. I had been in a crisis of belief recently due to some experiences that were continually bringing doubt to my faith through pharisaic and legalistic belief systems that were damaging to my daughter’s quickly and organically growing spirituality and my own and I had been in constant prayer asking God to once again to further grow my faith and hope in Him and Him alone. He most certainly did. My daughter was 7 then and had asked Christ into her heart around 6. She is 15 now and still has a beautiful growing faith and heart.

Know that when you earnestly seek God and His will from your heart and ask him to grow your faith in Him, know that He most assuredly will and you just never know what He will use to do it…Bible, Saints, dreams, visions, friends, children, circumstances, coincidences, seashells, creation…or maybe a four leafed clover.

I pray that we can all Live Life Abundantly and Harmoniously under His great umbrella of Grace..Trusting in Him alone, Michelle Solberg

“So let us come bold to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it. ” Hebrews 4:16

“…God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love…”

The Latin Word Teleious means Complete, which means lacking nothing, of full age and mature. God’s Love for us is exemplified by this and has no fear, nor is it hampered by insecurity or anxiety, which many times characterized aspects of our human imperfect love. In God’s love we can be made complete by this love if we continue to allow His love to do the sanctifying work of grace in us.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God said in Isaiah 66:13, “As a mother comforts her son, so will I comfort you.” So God’s love for us is likened to a mother and her child and as those of us with children know the strong bond of protection and love that we can have for our children, and God’s love is even more perfect and stronger than that.

“…But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit…”

God still loves us even when we are choosing to stay separate from Him through our own accord and bad behavior. He is clear that in order to bear the fruit of His love, we have to choose His love above all else and not rely on humans or materialism to fulfill us. It is not healthy for a parent to force their children to submit to their plans for their life, neither is it healthy for the human race to be forced by God to choose His plans for our life. This would not bring us and humanity to the place of completion that He truly desires for us, therefore, He allows us to have Free Will. He knows there are many who will not choose Him and will continue to live Hell on Earth instead of a glimpse of Heaven on Earth, through their pride or comfort in their pain and they will refuse to be reconciled and will continue to remain in captivity to the enemy. Breaking free from pride, painful choices and the opinions of others and to live in God’s Love is Freedom.

“…that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,”

His desire because He loves us so much is for us to choose Him of our own accord and allow His love to change us, fill us and then with overflow, we are to be an agent of change for Him in the world. He wants us to have the wisdom and discernment when to go back to the well to fill up and when to pour out. He calls us to love with insight and compassion. He wants us to have understand the potential spiritual handicaps that those He may call us to love may have. If we don’t forgive others and deal with our own issues, we will be spiritually handicapped.

He does not want us to pour out without filling up. He does not want us to be continually drained by unhealthy people with motives of manipulation or just rooted in bitterness. When we are full, we can better love those who drain us. However, some people do not want reconciled and not all relationships are are the will of God. Some relationships, especially, those which are hurtful or extremely unhealthy and dysfunctional, are not meant to be reconciled, because the relationship was not meant to exist. He calls us to be wise, to love at arms length when necessary and to walk away or just plain stay away, when necessary and pray.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

He calls us to love afar. He calls us to love globally. He calls up to love those in poverty with no strings attached, with nothing to gain. But how we do gain. Loving afar, relieves us of the burden of our own self absorption. It gives us great insight into the lives of people of truly depend on God for their needs.

Onto Loving 4 Different Kinds of People that God Calls us to Love

Joy

Joy is the easy to love person. Our “Joys” maybe different for each of us, but usually someone we get good energy from or our encouraged by.

Testy

Testy is the person that constantly tests us or we allow to push our buttons. We may be someone else’s “Testy”.

Foe

Foe is our enemy, there is a fine line between love and hate, and sometimes our foe’s fit this idiom. Maybe we love them, but hate their behavior. God tells us to love our enemies and to pray for them in Matthew 5:44-46.

Far

Far is a stranger to us. It could be someone we don’t know walking down our own street or a person in a foreign land we have showed up to help. Do we bother to show love to people we don’t know? God calls us to.

Much of the study echoes teachings in the Walk to Emmaus and the personal journey of my heart and it is always good to have the edification of the journey laid out for all to see and to testify that it is a very real journey to be approached with great intention and purpose to choose to let God love you perfectly, like no one else can, so that you can break free from any captivity and then go out and love others well, pointing them to the only One that can love them perfectly.

On a personal note, what a great pleasure it was to travel this journey with the Hope Circle ladies of SUMC. What a beautiful gift of love you poured out to all who attended and I know each and everyone was blessed and filled up with God’s love and myself included. I enjoyed reconnecting with everyone so much…truly a gift and it is well with my soul. It was a pleasure to spend some time with each of you.

Metamorphosis My son wanted to start a business, his sister had started one as a homeschool project https://www.etsy.com/shop/SamanthasTreasure/about so, like a typical younger brother, he wanted what she had. He was 10. He had recently been on a Mission Trip to Guatemala through Faith Project International with me and his Read more »

If you have time, please be sure to watch the video at the end. When I told my 10 year old son that we were going on a Mission Trip to Guatemala with Faith Project International, he immediately shot off 3 questions in quick succession: 1) Is it cold there? Read more »